Health sciences

Turkey plans to start administering vaccines against the novel coronavirus as soon as mid-December, the country's health minister has said.

"At least 10 million, but probably roughly 20 million doses [of the Chinese] vaccine would be procured in December, along with 20 million doses in January and another 10 million in February," Fahrettin Koca told reporters on Dec. 1.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine could be rolled out in Europe this month, the companies said on Tuesday after they applied for EU emergency approval for the shot.

China has provided North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his family with an experimental coronavirus vaccine, a U.S. analyst said on Tuesday, citing two unidentified Japanese intelligence sources.

Harry Kazianis, a North Korea expert at the Center for the National Interest think tank in Washington, said the Kims and several senior North Korean officials had been vaccinated.

Moderna Inc will apply for US and European emergency authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine on Monday after full results from a late-stage study showed it was 94.1% effective with no serious safety concerns, the company said.

The first Covid-19 vaccines to come to Bulgaria will be those of Pfizer/BioNTECH, and the first shipments are expected as early as the end of 2020.

This became clear during today's working meeting with cabinet members convened by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

In the past week, more than 12,000 people have recovered from Covid-19.

Moderna Inc. said it would ask U.S. and European regulators on Nov. 30 to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine as new study results confirm the shots offer strong protection, ramping up the race to begin limited vaccinations as the coronavirus rampage worsens.

The Development Ministry on Monday announced Greece's first locally produced rapid antigen test for the novel coronavirus, hailing its development as a "major success."

A part of a 2.9-million-euro research program funded by the ministry, the test is the result of cooperation between six research centers and four universities.

The OPEC oil producers' club and its allies will hold a virtual meeting on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 to finalise an expected extension to production cuts as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on global demand.

The British government said on Nov. 27 it has asked its independent medicines regulator to assess AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine as part of the formal approval process for the drug to be rolled out by the end of the year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday inaugurated a pharmaceutical plant in Siberia that will manufacture drugs to treat COVID-19 as the country reported record high numbers of new coronavirus infections and deaths.